Click here for more about Rider Safety, including diagrams and info from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

Each of our rides begins with a safety talk. We will review our club’s practices and expectations. We encourage proper riding gear: helmet, eye protection, gloves, close-toed shoes, and jacket.

We want everyone to have an enjoyable and safe ride regardless of your experience level. Feel unsure? Reach out! We’re all safer when we help each other.

Keep an eye out for Ride Staff in safety vests during each ride. In the Twin Cities we do not block traffic (please don’t get our Prez in trouble! They get to take responsibility for us all!).

The ride leader, sweep and mid-ride staff will work to keep you safe and on-route. Make sure you can always see a Ride Staffer during your ride.

Description text goes hereThis ride will be fun. I promise. But it won’t be for everyone. There are tons of murals around the metro. BUT because the vast majority of murals are in more of the congested parts of the city, and those parts are currently under heavy construction, this ride is not ideal for all riders. I’m not trying to discourage anyone, but I want you to know what you’re signing up for. Please be honest with yourself about your riding abilities and instincts, especially in a group, before you choose to join this ride. If you’re hesitating, you may want to join our other Friday ride. This is for your safety and the safety of those around you. No one wants anyone to have a bad day.

There are plenty of folks that really want a murals ride that may not feel comfortable doing this ride in a large group. That is completely understandable and nobody should do anything that makes them uncomfortable. The ride route will be posted to the Facebook page and a post-ride email so you would be able to go out and do it on your own at some point. I will also post the link for the map that I used to plan my route so that you can go ride your own murals ride. I recommend it AFTER the Lake Street construction is finished. Just saying.

The ride has LOTS of construction, stop-and-go traffic, multiple train track crossings, tight slow turns in a group, several alleyways and heavy pedestrian traffic in some spots, industrial area roads (aka rough), obstacles, shifting traffic patterns, etc. It is the epitome of challenging city scooting. It will require attentiveness, concentration, and thoughtful driving. We will want to stay in a group as much as possible so that means close proximity to other scoots, good decision making, and quick reflexes. The first half, before lunch, is especially “interesting”.

We will be stopping a handful of places for quick photo ops, water breaks, or to regroup, but lunch is our only “long” stop to eat and gas up. For the sake of time, we only plan to stop and take pics at a few of the murals. This will depend largely on the size of the group and how quickly we can accomplish the photo ops.

That being said…This ride is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll.

Country = Parkways

Rock and Roll = Metro driving and all that that entails

The ride starts from Scooterville, takes a quick jaunt from Franklin Ave down the River Parkway to Lake Street, a short hop onto Minnehaha Ave then west across Hiawatha, back to Lake Street and the worst of the construction/traffic, then lunch and a gas stop by Bde Maka Ska. The first half will be about 60-90 minutes drive time before lunch.

After lunch, we cruise past the Walker Art Center, into downtown and view the iconic murals there. Then we head north out of downtown past a few more, onto St. Anthony Parkway/Ave, into the South St. Anthony Park neighborhood to ride past multiple murals. Then we finish up our ride back at Scooterville. The second half will be 2-2.5 hours drive time.

I love me a shifty scoot, I own a shifty scoot, but I’ll be riding my automatic for this ride. Given the stop-and-go nature of the ride, it’s preferable for me. Also, there is a lot of time idling in traffic. If it’s hot, that may be an issue with your scoot. Decide accordingly on both these issues.

If all of that still sounds acceptable to you, join me and my ride staff for a fun mural-appreciating outing. If you think you might enjoy a more leisurely ride that visits several art supply stores join Sarah Sheber, TCSC president, for her Let’s Get Creative ride that also leaves Friday morning from Scooterville.

A chill, easy ride to visit Twin Cities lovely purveyors for creative supplies. This ride is 50cc friendly and avoids roads with a speed limit over 40mph. The ride will happen in segments with multiple stops for food, shopping and treats. We’ll wind from Scooterville to Mac-Groveland to Como Park and NE Mpls before heading back to Scooterville. Pure ride time is about 2 hours. I’m building a list of sites, shops, food and gas near each of our stops to share with riders on the day. 

Ride staffing will be LIGHT, we’ll have a lead and a sweep. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to regroup along the route and the places we are most likely to get separated have no turns. I will wait for the group to come back together before taking major turns. 

Of course, weirdness happens. Anyone remember the truck-under-a-bridge from my ride last year??? We’ll roll with what comes. Excitement, adventure, lots of trees. It’ll be grand. 

Choose your own adventure!

Teams of 2 or more will have a chance to follow the list of clues all around the cities. See icons and institutions. Gather your finds and race to Arbeiter! This is a timed event, shortest time wins!

For folks hanging out at Scooterville for the afternoon we will lead a comfy casual ride to our evening venue. Rolling up and down the Mississippi River parkways as the sun begins to wane.

Take a ride to connect with notable architectural works in the Twin Cities.

This Saturday rally ride will depart Go Moto and roll through the Minneapolis and St. Paul downtowns as well as surrounding areas. We will be passing architectural works that are award winners or considered architecturally significant in some other way. The ride is 50cc friendly, and rolls along city streets, including Summit Avenue, as well as several parkways. 

The first half of the ride leaves Go Moto at 10am and scoots about 22 miles, approximately 60-90 minutes, through downtown then onto the parkways along Lake of the Isles, Bde Maka Ska, and Lake Harriet before stopping for lunch. After lunch we head east along the parkways to Summit Avenue, and into St. Paul. Leaving St. Paul we scoot northwest along Como Ave, into Falcon Heights and then onto Northern Soda, our afternoon venue. The second half of the ride is approximately 35 miles and will run 1.5 - 2 hours.

Join ride leader, Joe Metzler, for this Architecture as Art ride! Joe is president of Vespa Club Twin Cities and is gracious in co-hosting the rally.

Description text goes hereWho wants to get “out of town” for part of the day? This ride does just that. We leave Go Moto and head out for some lake views and a faster cruise.

Did you know that scooters notoriously have inaccurate speedometers? A 5-10 mph difference is not uncommon. Keep that in mind as you decide to do this ride. This ride is not 50cc friendly. There are many stretches of 40mph, several lengthy stretches of 45mph and at least 2 spots where we’ll be going 50mph. I’m warning you now, your speedometer will (most likely) lie to you!

AND we’ll be doing almost 80 miles for the day.

If you feel comfortable at those distances/speeds and can keep up with the group, join us!

To start, we’ll scoot on the parkways, out through Vadnais Heights and head to downtown White Bear Lake for lunch. We’ll do almost 30 miles for the first half.

After lunch, we’ll cruise around White Bear, Bald Eagle, Birch, Rice, Owasso, Vadnais, and Johanna lakes for about 2 hours and approximately 50 miles.

It’s a beautiful ride! And big thanks to Joe Metzler, President of Vespa Club Twin Cities, for planning both rally rides on Saturday and leading the other Saturday ride. He will lead his ride around the metro to significant architectural locations and it is 50cc friendly. For more information on his ride, check out our previous post.

You don't want to miss this! We'll take the short ride to Forgotten Star as a total rally riding group. The largest number of scoots on any ride during the rally! We'll pull in for a dramatic entrance in what I lovingly think of as the Winner's Circle. We hope to get photos of our arrival and total ridership.